Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

The occupational hazard of being an editor includes rarely having a moment of respite, and if you’re Vice President and Editorial Director Rebecca Saletan of Riverhead Books, reprieve comes brief and breathless between early morning interviews, houseguests, Sunday email correspondence, after-hour author meetings, and Friday night industry events. Her work stretches far beyond the nine to five workday. Does Saletan sleep? I doubt it. But at least her authors can rest knowing she’s devoted to them and to raising the bar in publishing.

Kerri Arsenault: How did you come to editing?Rebecca Saletan: I feel like I have the most boring story! Like practically everybody else who went into publishing in my era, I was an English major. It was also that era when the options seemed to be business school, law school, or med school—there wasn’t a lot of other guidance about other fields. But I’d discovered at Yale, or maybe even earlier, that I liked working on other people’s prose in some ways more than on my own. Then my cousin suggested I speak with my aunt’s ex-husband’s ex-girlfriend, who was working at Yale University Press. I went to see her for an informational interview, and she said, listen there might be a job here. MORE